Although the light of his musical genius has faded with the passing of time and fancy, Sir Edward Elgar resurrected English Classical music from a long slumber to a climax of patriotic fervor by setting to music the strongest British sentiments that ever beat in an Edwardian Englishman’s heart. With the performance of Elgar’s Coronation Ode at the coronation of King Edward VII himself, Elgar reached at the very heart of the splendor and moral code of the English court and all that had been “Victorian” and would become “Edwardian.” However, even with the utterance of Elgar’s invocation at the 1902 coronation, “Lord of Life, we pray, Crown the King with Life!,” the British Empire stood upon the brink of its greatest and final collapse in the 20th century, and these golden days would soon turn to blood. Elgar became the last bard of Great Britain. Read more on Landmarks of Liberty…

E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern